Paul Edward Theroux (/θəˈruː/;[2] born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue The Great Railway Bazaar (1975).

He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name and the 2021 television series of the same name.

[9][10] In a later life interview, he described himself as an "angry and agitated young man" who felt he had to escape the confines of Massachusetts and a hostile U.S. foreign policy.

[15][16][17] During his time in Uganda, an angry mob at a demonstration threatened to overturn the car in which his pregnant wife was riding, and Theroux decided to leave Africa.

[22] The two authors attempted a reconciliation in 2011[23] after a chance meeting at the Hay Literary Festival, an episode described in postscript to the subsequent paperback edition of Sir Vidia’s Shadow, and remained close friends until the death of Naipaul in 2018.

[28] Theroux has criticized celebrity activists like Bono, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as "mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth.

In the article, he compared his association with rebel ministers and own unwitting involvement, while a Peace Corps volunteer, in a plot to assassinate President Hastings Banda of Malawi (noted above) to the complexities in the case of the convicted American citizen[30] who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

His account of this journey was published as The Great Railway Bazaar, his first major success as a travel writer and now a classic in the genre.

[33][34] The Nigerian reviewer Noo Saro-Wiwa wrote: "Theroux's book The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) sold 1.5 million copies and is often credited with launching the travel-writing boom of the late twentieth century.

Nonfiction by Theroux includes Sir Vidia's Shadow, an account of his personal and professional friendship with Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul, which ended abruptly after 30 years.

[citation needed] His novella Doctor Slaughter was filmed as Half Moon Street, in 1986, with Michael Caine and Sigourney Weaver.

[citation needed] Peter Weir's film The Mosquito Coast (1986) had Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and River Phoenix in the cast.

[citation needed] Theroux's set of short stories The London Embassy became a six-part TV series on British television in 1987.

[citation needed] Theroux's 2017 semi-autobiographical novel Mother Land (and earlier related short story in The New Yorker, set in Puerto Rico) refer to an older son born in Puerto Rico in 1961 with his college girlfriend and he had travelled for the birth, giving the baby up for adoption; later, Theroux's son returned into his life.

There he met Anne Castle, an English graduate student teaching at an upcountry girls' secondary school in Kenya, via Voluntary Service Overseas.